Aircraft, especially military aircraft, are often equipped with auxiliaries. Such auxiliaries include fuel tanks (drop tanks), ordinance, drone, sensor pods, storage, and the like. Generally, such auxiliaries are configured to be carried on the fuselage belly or the underside of the wings. It will be appreciated that different aircraft have different dimensions and auxiliary needs. Thus, it is known in the art to provide a specialized cart for use in transporting and facilitating the installation/removal of a particular auxiliary on a particular aircraft.
As aircraft are configured for different missions auxiliaries designed for a particular aircraft and a particular mission are typically removed from storage and transported to an aircraft via a specially configured mule. Such a specially configured mule is designed to carry a single mission specific auxiliary for fitment at a particular location on a particular model of aircraft.
In an operating theater it is not uncommon for a diverse group of aircraft including different models of aircraft designed and configured for different missions to be operated from a single location. This requires the storage of various aircraft, various auxiliaries, and various mules. Additionally, personnel trained in aircraft configuration techniques for each aircraft, auxiliary, and mule must be available. This requires additional storage and operating space, theater equipment transport effort and logistics, personnel and training, and planning.
Existing designs and implementations of fuel tank transports (e.g., aircraft mules) may be limited with respect to a run-away angle and an amount of force that may be applied at either end of a load/fuel tank during receiving, loading, and/or unloading of the load/fuel tank. For example, assuming an elliptically shaped fuel tank, with two opposing ends along the major axis and a fuel tank that is less than full (e.g., half full), unless the tank is completely level during receiving, loading, and/or unloading, the fuel will shift from one end of the fuel tank to another end of the fuel tank during loading, unloading, and/or transport. The shift creates extra force applied to one end of the tank due to the combined weight of the fuel and gravitational forces. Additional forces (e.g., momentum) may also add to the extra force applied at one end of the tank if the transport is moving and/or stopping or if the fluid is in motion. If the run-away angle is not compensated for, the force applied at one end may be too great, resulting in potential tipping, significant wear-and-tear to transport components (e.g., hydraulic lift and/or tilt system), and possibly failure of components.